by Melani Manel Perera

A delegation from the Bishops’ Conference want people locked up in re-education camps to be allowed to go back to their homes. They want fishing and farming to be developed, villages demilitarised and troops off the land owned by civilians.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – A delegation of the Catholic Bishops' Conference (CBCSL) led by its president, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday evening, 22 August to discuss current issues in the country’s north and east.

According to what CBCSL assistant secretary general, Fr Leopold Rathnasekara, told AsiaNews, the bishops discussed with President Rajapaksa the speedy resettlement of people internally displaced (IDPs) by war and tsunami in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern regions.

They said that IDPs as well as people locked up in re-education centres should be allowed to go back to their original homes. Since the end in May 2009 of the civil war between the government and Tamil Tigers, many people have been locked up in camps, waiting for rehabilitation.

Led by CBCSL president, Mgr Malcolm Ranjith, the bishops called on the president to “let IDPs go home, provide them with the means of subsistence, speed up demilitarisation, abolish high security zones (HSZs) and prevent troops from occupying lands belonging to the civilians.”

The bishops also offered the Church’s help and invited Rajapaksa to let NGOs operate alongside the government to help IDPs.

The Church delegation also asked the government to set up an interfaith consultative commission chaired by a minister to monitor how aid is handed out.

More than 300,000 people were locked up in IDP camps in 2009. The bishops congratulated the president for rehabilitating 250,000 people in just over a year.

According to UN figures, 77,000 people are still held in camps.

• sri
• lanka
• bishops
• president
• rajapaksa
• rehabilitation
• return